Masses Quotes

The only freedom supposed to be left to the masses is that of grazing on the ration of simulacra the system distributes to each individual.

Michel De Certeau

The multitude is always wrong.

Proverb

Our leading men are not of much account and never have been, but the average of the people is immense, beyond all history. Sometimes I think in all departments, literature and art included, that will be the way our superiority will exhibit itself. We will not have great individuals or great leaders, but a great average bulk, unprecedentedly great.

Walt Whitman

The general interest of the masses might take the place of the insight of genius if it were allowed freedom of action.

Denis Diderot

Nothing is so contemptible as the sentiments of the mob.

Seneca (Seneca the Elder)

Civilization exists precisely so that there may be no masses but rather men alert enough never to constitute masses.

Georges Bernanos

The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.

Epicurus

What will happen once the authentic mass man takes over, we do not know yet, although it may be a fair guess that he will have more in common with the meticulous, calculated correctness of Himmler than with the hysterical fanaticism of Hitler, will more resemble the stubborn dullness of Molotov than the sensual vindictive cruelty of Stalin.

Hannah Arendt

For men tied fast to the absolute, bled of their differences, drained of their dreams by authoritarian leeches until nothing but pulp is left, become a massive, sick Thing whose sheer weight is used ruthlessly by ambitious men. Here is the real enemy of the people: our own selves dehumanized into the masses. And where is the David who can slay this giant?

Lillian Smith

The voice of the majority is no proof of justice.

Friedrich von Schiller

None of us know all the potentialities that slumber in the spirit of the population, or all the ways in which that population can surprise us when there is the right interplay of events.

Vaclav Havel